Duplex
Duplex is an Inkling present in Harbington Heroes, a fan-fiction by MilkJunkie. It was once described as having a silver body with a metallic shine, with blue eyes and mouth. Later on, as it continyed to bond with its host, it was described as "a lava lamp-esque combination of blue and yellow ink." It commonly takes the shape of its host, Quincey Abram. Background Osoth's Usurpation Duplex was once two separate Inklings. One was named Dormence, who had the power to ease someone to sleep; the other was Tranquil, who had the power to instill calm in others. In the past, these two Inklings felt that they lacked any real purpose, as their powers weren't in high demand from Inklings or hosts. It was only Osoth who needed them, whose stress and anger were paramount due to her efforts to usurp command over the Inkling race. Dormence and Tranquil grew so attached to Osoth that they were blinded to her tyrannical efforts, only to be overjoyed when Osoth came into power. Over time, however, when the new Empress' cruelty became too intense to ignore, Dormence and Tranquil realized just what monster they had been supporting. It was too late by then to turn their back on Osoth. They remained loyal to her out of fear. Eventually, after countless Inklings had been passed through Osoth's body, the Empress gave birth to an Inkling Core that had no body. This core had a unique ability to manipulate prana; it was able to give, take away, and create physical constructs from prana even outside of Canvas. Dormence and Tranquil named the core "Epheral." They felt that such an ability would end Osoth's need to find host planets, but Osoth simply saw Epheral as a threat to her rule. For her own safety, she had Gatemaker Parthal cast Epheral away into the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Dormence and Tranquil insisted that it was a mistake to threw Epheral away, and Osoth saw their defiance as treason. She banished them alongside Epheral, leaving them all to their fate. The two Inklings were saved by Epheral's strange ability to store prana in greater amounts than normal. It was able to form a structure from prana that sustained Dormence, Tranquil, and itself. It is unknown how long they drifted through space, but eventually they landed on a planet that had once been occupied by Osoth. Having no choice but to stay there, Dormence and Tranquil tried to mentor Epheral, while the three of them fought to survive. Epheral wanted to liberate those under Osoth's terrible rule, though its early attempts to do so were met with failure. It would then take Dormence and Tranquil to go to the next world, repeating the process anew. Dormence and Tranquil watched as Epheral's targeting of Osoth's planets became an obsession with only one clear goal: to absorb Osoth and end her. Not wishing to live under the rule of another tyrant, they attempted to stop Epheral, which resulted in the core nearly draining them of their prana and hurling them into space. In desperation, Dormence and Tranquil held each other close until their broken bodies merged into a single Inkling entity: Duplex. Post-Locksmouth Incident Duplex eventually found its way to Earth at some point after the Locksmouth Incident. It learned of Echelon's victory over Osoth while trapped in the body of one of Osoth's many Crawlers. Duplex had no control over its host and the Crawler fled toward Harbington, where it ran through a string of hosts until finally happening upon Quincey Abram. It demanded that Quincey take it to Locksmouth, its intent being to meet with Echelon and warn her of Epheral's eventual coming. Throughout the journey, Duplex became impatient, as its unstable form was rapidly deteriorating. As its relationship with Quincey grew, so did Quincey's ability as a host to sustain Duplex with the prana it needed. But the rate of deterioration was faster than that of the upkeep, and by the time Duplex had actually reached Locksmouth, it had become so weakened that it was trapped in a dormant state. It was later captured by Eos, who Quincey had repeated encounters with before, and eventually freed again by Echelon herself. Having warned Echelon of the coming crisis, Duplex remained with Quincey as she became its best hopes in staying alive. The Inkling went back to Harbington, where it remained with Quincey to try and restore itself as much as possible and avoid withering away. Weeks later, Epheral arrived in Harbington, and began a full-scale assault on the dome, sending the citizenry into a panic. Duplex encountered Epheral, and in the following confrontation was nearly destroyed all over again. Split into what was left of Dormence and Tranquil, the Inklings used their latent powers to bring Quincey into the realm of Dreamless Urgai, fearing their host was about to meet an untimely end at Epheral's hand and wanting to give her a peaceful rest to make it painless. In that dream realm, Dormence and Tranquil waited to fade away, considering themselves failures in every pursuit. Quincey found their mangled forms and reunited them with the utter refusal to let them go. She forced them back together, and they fought this dismally. It was Urgai himself that had them see reason, and with their new acceptance to Quincey as their host, they bonded anew with the girl, stronger than ever. When Quincey awoke, Duplex continued its fight against Epheral in earnest, with its powers more fine-tuned and their personalities more resembling Quincey's own. This new bonding was still only temporary, however, and as Duplex was accepted into the fold by Echelon, Mhend took it upon herself to try and treat Duplex's condition while Echelon promised she would do everything she could to help. Despite repeated treatments, Mhend and Echelon found themselves unable to fix Duplex, with Mhend describing Duplex as coming apart at the seams with no possible recourse. It wasn't until Epheral once again destroyed Duplex's core that things came to a head. Epheral had denounced herself as an Inkling, and completely inverted the prana energy she used to exist into anti-prana, or Aprana. This Aprana reacted poisonously to Inklings, and when Epheral tore Duplex's core asunder soon after the transformation, the Inkling 's death seemed all too certain. Echelon had no choice but to utilize Epheral's own powers of prana manipulation, combined with Vor's power of matter consumption, to haphazardly replicate the Inkling birthing process that had once been thought only possible by Osoth. Echelon succeeded, drawing heavily from the prana of Quincey's and her own packs, as well as nearly depleting her own reserves. She combined Duplex into a singular, whole entity and regurgitated it, returning it to Quincey. It was Duplex's final reincarnation, where Dormence and Tranquil were permanently merged and thus erased, but not entirely gone. Duplex retained a combination of their colours of blue and yellow, melting into a turquoise green while her core seemed to remain a split of those primary colours. Any elements of conflicting or bugged personality in Duplex had been corrected, and the Inkling finally found identity alongside a new, even more powerful extent of its - now her - powers. With the memories of Dormence and Tranquil still intact, Duplex lead the fight against Epheral in the final battle. Using Shading, she and Quincey defeated Epheral with force, while promising they would one day meet again, as Epheral's corruption of Earth's and Canvas' prana assured she would one day in the far-flung future be reborn again. Duplex remained with Quincey afterward, and swore never to part from her again. The Inkling was heralded among Harbington and Locksmouth citizens alike as a hero, launching Duplex into celebrity status. The Inkling continued to offer itself tirelessly to Quincey's community, working with the girl to aid in the recovery after Epheral's attack. Abilities Duplex's abilities lie in duplication. It has the ability to not only replicate everyday objects to near perfect molecular details, but also to take on the form of its host, Quincey, and create a physical copy of her. Using this ability helps tip things in the girl's favour by adding numbers to her force in battle, or in more clever ways such as deception and diversionary tactics. The caveats are prana limitations, familiarity with an object to be duplicated, and object complexity. The more familiar Duplex (or host) is with how something works or how it is constructed, the easier it is to duplicate the object. Similarly, if an object contains complex mechanisms or is composed of several intricate parts, this effects its ability to duplicate. Kenny has likened this to "loading off a disk," where new data takes longer to be collected and worked with as opposed to recalling something already on-file. Category:Fan-Characters Category:Characters Category:Inked